The most polluted rivers in the world

Which are the most polluted rivers in the world? It looks like there is a creep contest going on among the world’s rivers to come out on top of it. Major pollutants of rivers are generally industry, intensive agriculture, and the inhabitants along the coasts who use the rivers as bins to dump their waste.

op 10 Most Polluted Rivers in the World

The first inglorious place is won by a river of the Indonesian island of Java: the Citarum. Every day, nearly 300 tons of waste is dumped by nearly 1500 factories! This explains the unbearable smell prevailing there and the waste covering the whole river and its banks in several parts of its course.

The same story may apply in part to the Volga, Europe’s largest river, polluted by industrial waste that proliferate all kinds of organic substances.

The most famous river in France, the Seine, is notoriously polluted. The fish in the river is poisoned with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls these, well known for its harmfulness) Fishing is banned along some parts of the river… Even the river Rhone is polluted with this chemical substance.

All these chemicals include cadmium, gradually destroying the Yangtze River, China’s longest river, and its biodiversity is gradually perishing too. Many parts of its course have already been declared to be in critical conditions.

The Ganges is considered a sacred river in India, but this fact did not, however, spare the river the horrors of intensive agriculture. Overexploited, its water is full of waste. Its biodiversity is in jeopardy. Even the iconic dolphins of Ganges, are endangered due to pollution.

Back to Europe, the river Danube, so admired and so little respected, is suffering the same fate. Pesticides, fertilizers, mercury, other chemicals and sometimes added sewers, which flow without treatment within the river, are polluting it.

This is also the case of Nahr Ghadir, a river in Lebanon. The mass tourism and the fishing industry is worsening the situation and making it even more distressing. This is also the fate of the mythical Mekong River in Asia. Disturbing amount of pollutants increase day by day in the waters of this river. The risks are very real.

In future all these life- giving rivers may become completely poisonous.